Deffenbaugh to face McMahan in Georgia's District 1 House race

Robins wins Whitfield commission bid

photo Ken Earwood prepares to vote at the Dade County Administrative Building in Trenton, Ga., Tuesday.

READ MOREDavid Perdue defeats Rep. Jack Kingston in Georgia GOP runoff for U.S. Senate

HOUSE DISTRICT 1 VOTE TOTALS• John Deffenbaugh: 1,351• Robert Goff: 1,103

photo John Deffenbaugh
photo Robert Goff
Arkansas-Florida Live Blog

The runoff election for Georgia's District 1 House of Representatives, which includes the western part of Walker County and all of Dade County, had Republican incumbent John Deffenbaugh winning with 55 percent of the vote with all votes counted.

It was one of 21 primary races across Georgia on Tuesday.

Deffenbaugh will face Democrat Thomas McMahan, again, in the general election on Nov. 4. Deffenbaugh previously defeated McMahan in the 2012 election with 68.5 percent of the vote.

"It was a good and close race, and I have no animosity and don't think he has any toward me," Deffenbaugh said. "It was a positive race, and the people spoke and I won. I plan to continue to support my constituents."

Robert Goff, who resigned from his post as Dade District 3 commissioner to challenge Deffenbaugh, has not decided if he will run again in November to be his own successor.

Deffenbaugh visited more than seven voting precincts in the district and said the polls were not busy. "I have been disappointed in the turnout," he said.

"Runoff voting has been slow in most precincts," said Danielle Montgomery with the Walker County Election Board.

"There are not any hotly contested seats and early voting was low, so we assumed that voting would be slow," Montgomery said.

Runoff elections in Georgia are not open ballots, and voters must choose the same party's ballot that they used in the main primary. New voters are allowed to decide which ballot that they want to use for the runoff.

Whitfield County District 1 County Commission seat went to Republican Barry Robins over Renee Davis with 53.6 percent of the vote. All voters in the county helped decide the nonpartisan race for judge of the Superior Court of the Conasauga Judicial Circuit. With both counties reporting, Jim Wilbanks won with 59.95 percent of the vote over David Blevins.

In Dade County's County Commission District 1 incumbent Mitchell Smith won with 53.6 percent over Lamar Lowery.

In the Dade District 2 school board post, Jennifer Hartline won with 54.28 percent of the vote, defeating Summer Kelley.

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6592.

Upcoming Events